Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Existentialism Attacks!

Since I am determined to get 31 days of horror-related review posts in this month, and I still plan to blog as often as I can on the regular stuff, it means October will once again be a packed month.

Usually when I write posts with some negativity I tend to regret it....often soon after. I let this one slip through today and feel bad about it; I prefer not to get involved in the weird debacle of the internet culture of gaming outside the act of just embracing it whenever possible, so I feel I should redact a lot of what I said here, if only because I really don't want to start anything.

Also, I ran my Wednesday night game again and it reminded me of what I love about the hobby, which is good times, camaraderie, and wacky, unscripted adventures. That, in the end, is what really matters!

So I'm deleting the negative junk I had posted earlier. I prefer not to contribute to that sort of nonsense, anyway.

Keeping this part, though: it's just a "day in the life" moment:

I was walking around the mall with my son, who is an unabashed people-watcher and also, it turns out, a chick magnet. "They did not dress like that in my day," I told him. "You are going to be so lucky when you're old enough. Unless our entire society has some sort of puritanical uprising in the next eighteen years, your adult life is going to be a lot of fun, although we'll have to talk about that when the time comes. Gotta learn some basics, like language, and walking, first."

His response was, "lalalala, dada" and then he smacked me in the face while laughing hysterically because that's the funniest thing ever.

Well I didn't want to name names but there you go! And I agree, I may take a hiatus from both sites. Even when they're mellow they still drain my love of the hobby. Luckily my game session tonight reminded me of why I enjoy it.

If you lament the dearth of new ideas or the propensity for gamers to define themselves by what they don't play, I don't think the phrase "forge-inspired nonsense and artsy new systems..." is going to do you any favors. :)

Probably not. I hate writing stuff like this because I know my mood will change in a day or two (or less) and I'll feel bad about engaging in exactly the sort of behavior I'm complaining about. I do admit I don't really "get" a lot of that angle of the RPG industry now, I admit....it's just nowhere near the ballpark of RPGs as I've understood them. I guess I ought to keep that perspective in mind when considering the angle others must experience when looking at the many and varied niches in this hobby.

While it is perhaps true that there is a crystallization and factionalization of D&D players, it is likewise true that a certain style of play is being systematically pushed to the back seat by the corporation that purports to speak for all D&D players the world over.

I never made the 3e transition: I like a different type of D&D because I want different things from it. As an example of a disenfranchised player, the "type" of D&D that I play has not been officially supported since the end of TSR. I don't mean the ruleset, but rather the mindset that it engendered.

That means my only real option is this apparent backslide. Really, I like to think of elements of the OSR (at least the ones I admire) not so much as creeping backwards, but branching sideways down alternate routes that have been shunted out of the mainstream.

Oh, I completely understand that. I think the issue I feel is problematic is not where someone finds their corner (be it the new and cutting edge or the OSR movement) but those elements on both sides which seem to take umbrage that anyone else would have it differently. There's a lot of that on certain sites...where you have to mark your posts with a "+" sign if you want to avoid people coming in and trolling your game play discussion because they don't like it. I was a bit obscure in specifically who/what set me off, but I have two very specific sites in mind (which knobgobbler mentions...)

The important thing is that in a million years, when the brain-worms of Arcturus IX have annihilated us throughout the galaxy, there will be no surviving recordings of blogs to be found by the cephalopods that evolve to replace us. In this way will their civilization advance and prosper.